The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community held a Transportation Department Safety Summit that brought together Council members, local city officials, civil engineers, first responders and more to identify ways to make the sidewalks and roads in the Community safer.

3 Takeaways:

• The Tribal Transportation Summit was coordinated by the SRPMIC, city officials and Kimley-Horn, an engineering and planning firm that specializes in transportation planning and land development.
• Input received during the summit will be analyzed to create a Community-wide plan to improve the safety of the roads and sidewalks.
• Since July 2020, more than 2,500 collisions have occurred in the Community.

The safety of our loved ones in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community is an important topic for many.

On Sept. 29, the SRPMIC held its Transportation Safety Summit at the Community Building. Members of the Arizona Department of Transportation, the City of Scottsdale the SRPMIC Council attended the event.

For some time now, executive staff members from Kimley-Horn, an engineering and planning firm that specializes in transportation planning and land development, have been working closely with SRPMIC staff to create an exclusive plan to improve the roads and sidewalks in the Community.

“We have some data that goes as far back as June 2012,” said Kimley-Horn Transportation Planner Chris Joannes.

During the presentation, Joannes and his team presented data, which included the number of collisions the Community experienced over the last five years. Unfortunately, every year has seen an increase in accidents. From July 2020 to June 2021, there were 400 collisions in the Community. From July 2024 to June 2025, there were 554.

Various ideas brainstormed from the summit involve potentially introducing energy-efficient lights along the Community’s sidewalks by the bus stop benches, researching the positives of applying a grey coating to black asphalt to increase nighttime visibility, creating frequent educational public service announcements on seat belt safety and proper driving techniques, and much more.

“We hear a lot of concerns about the issues in our Community,” said SRPMIC President Martin Harvier. “I’m glad we’re getting together to talk about how we can make the Community safer. Just yesterday I was going home, and as I was coming to the stop sign at an intersection, a car just blew right through it.”

He added, “Part of me wondered, ‘Do these people feel they can just not obey the law in our Community?’”

Council member Jacob Butler also attended the summit. He thanked the officials for collaborating with the Community to improve the safety for all. As he viewed the maps detailing the accident data, he also revealed that he personally knew two of the three fatalities listed on the map.

“One of those red dots is my family member. The other red dot was my good friend. I still think about them when I’m at the stop sign,” he said.

He continued, “When my children leave in the morning, we tell each other we love each other. Because the reality is, you don’t know if you’re going to come back. Through studies like these and the actions of people in this room, we can help make it a reality that we can all go home to our families in a good way.”

Joannes and others from Kimley-Horn will continue to have a presence in the Community as they gather more data and work closely alongside SRPMIC Roads Section Manager Jennifer Jack.

There will soon be an online forum available for individuals to submit feedback regarding the safety of the Community’s roads and sidewalks. All finalized plans regarding the feedback received from the summit will be presented to Council next year.

O’odham Action News will continue to monitor this story.